One-piece forged steel railway journal box



June 1953 e. A. REIFSNYDER 2,640,737

vONE-PIECE FORGED STEEL RAILWAY JOURNAL BOX Fiied Aug. 15, 1949 2 Sheet' S-Sheet 1 FIG. I.

INQENTOR. wz. #4 7 n 1953 e. A. REIFSNYDER ONE-PIECE FORGED STEEL RAILWAY JOURNAL BOX Filed Aug. 15, 1949 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 4.

FIG. 7.

INVENTORI Patented June 2, 1953 ONE-PIECE FORGED STEEL RAILWAY JOURNAL BOX Gladford A. Reifsnyder, Canton, Ohio, assignor toThe Timken Roller Bearing Company, Canton, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application August 15, 1949, Serial No. 110,298

2 Claims.

Heretofore-it has been the usual practice to make railway journal boxes in the form of a onepiece steel casting or in the form of forged steel top and bottom half sections secured together by two welds located one on each side of the box. The disadvantages of the one-piece cast steel journal box are that it is liable to have shrinkage cracks and porous areas which have to be chipped out and welded, .it requires excessive cleanin to remove sand scale, shot, core wire, nails and burrs and it requires excessive machining for removal of excessive stock and it materially decreases the life of the tools used in cutting into the sand, scale, shrinkage cavities and cracks. With the forged section box, two welds are required and the forged sections have to be finished in closed impression dies, trimmed while hot and then coined in a hydraulic press. Matching of the forged sections must be held very close for welding, mis-matched forgings must be scrapped after welding, and resistance butt Welding is required to make acceptable welds without special preparation of the forged edges of the sections by machining or grinding.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a one-piece, single-weld, forged steel journal box which will overcome the disadvantages above pointed out. Another object is to provide a plastic flow of the metal conformably to the surface contour of the journal box and to direct the flow lines of the metal to the regions of greatest shock and stress to thereby materially increase the strength of the box. Another object is to locate the weld line of the journal box where the least strength is required. Another object is to provide for welding the journal without special preparation of forged edges thereof and without the use of expensive fixtures for holding said edges in matchingrelation. Other objects are to reduce the numb-er of operations required to form the journal, to provide close dimensional tolerances and to reduce waste, trimming and machining to a minimum.

The invention consists in providing a forged one-piece, single-weld journal box whose fibers are disposed transversely of said housing and substantially parallel with the inner and outer surface contour thereof. The invention also consists in the hereinafter set forth and claimed method of forming such forged one-piece, singleweld journal box.

In the accompanying drawings which form part of this specification and wherein like symbols refer to like parts wherever they occur,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a length of bar steel from which my journal box is made,

Fig.2 is a' perspective viewshowingthe bar steel after it'has beenflattened by a'hot forging operationrinto a :slab of :a length, width and thickness required to'produce the journal box therefrom.

Fig. 3 is an' end viewof the hot forged initially contouredshallow channelsection formed from the forged slab shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is anen'd elevational view, showingthe hot forged-finally contoureddeeper channel section formed from the shallow'partially' contoured channel section shown in'Fig. 3,

Fig; 5 is an-end'elevationalview,showing the finished forged deeper channel section with its opposite side portions partially bent inwardly towards each other,

Fig. 6' is a viewsimilar to Fig. 5,showing'the partially bent side portionsbent inwardly into final position and' securedtogether' by a longitudinal weld; and.

Fig. 7 is'aviewsimilar to Fig. 6 diametrically illustrating the arrangementof the metal fibers in the finished'journalbox.

The accompanying drawings illustrate my method as applied to the'production of a one piece, single weldi'railway rolle'r bearing journal box or-other heavy dutyload supporting housing. The journal box has a substantially cylindrical opening I extending therethrough from end to end thereof, a relatively thick and narrow flattopped upper portion 2 and relatively thin walls 3 of irregular thickness and surface contour that extend downwardly on opposite sides of the housing and inwardly at the bottom thereof along their adjacent edges by means of a central longitudinal weld 4. As diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 7 of the drawings, the metal fibers of the completed housing extend substantially circumferentially thereof and substantially follow the irregular contour of the inner and outer surfaces of said housing.

As shown in Fig. 1, my process of forming the above journal box starts with a length of bar steel A of square section whose size is predetermined by the amount of material required for the finished box. The bar steel is of uniform analysis and is selected to meet the desired service requirements. The length of bar steel A is heated to forging temperature and flattened by a hot forging operation into slab B (see Fig. 2) of a length, width and thickness suitable for further forging operations. The forged fiat slab B is then drop-forged with the same heating into a shallow channel section C (see Fig. 3) having a thick partially contoured upstanding middle portion 2 and thinner outwardly and downwardly curved opposite side portions 3 conforming roughly to the portions 2 and 3, respectively, of the finished journal box shown in Fig. 6. The forged shallow channel section C of Fig. 3 is then reheated and reforged into a deeper channel section D (see Fig. 4) whose thick middle portion 2 and thin opposite side portions 3 have substantially the same width, length, thickness and surface contour as the portions 2 and 3, respectively, of the finished journal box of Fig. 6. The forging flash is then trimmed from the forged channel section D while said section is still hot. At this point, the forging has its mass or body material properly distributed so that the points or regions requiring the most strength are supplied with suflicient mass to withstand the stresses.

After trimming, the relatively thin and surface contoured side marginal portions 3 of the finished forged channel section D are rolled or bent downwardly and inwardly towards one another and their free ends brought into opposed slightly spaced relation to form. the journal box shown in Fig. 6. This bending is preferably performed in two successive operations, the opposite side portions 3 being bent part way towards each other in the first bending operation and then bent into final position by the second bending operation. As shown in Fig. 6, the opposing edges of the walls 3 of the journal box are then welded together, as at 4, from the inside out by means of a fully automatic submerged arc welding operation. Finally, this forged one-piece, single-weld journal box is finished by a suitable machining operation.

Fig. 7 shows the fibrous fiow lines obtained in the completed journal box. These flow lines, which in the bar steel lay longitudinally thereof, extend circumferentially of the finished journal box and are concentrated thereon at the points of greatest stress, thereby making a stronger box than a one-piece cast box or a welded box made from forged half sections. Another important advantage of my forged one-piece journal box is that the weld line is located at the bottom of the box where the least strength is required, the main load being carried by the thick top portion of the box. My forged one-piece, single-weld journal box also eliminates the mis-matching difliculties experienced with housings that are made from two forged half sections and simplifies the welding and also permits various welding methods to be used without special preparation of the welding edges and without using expensive fixtures. Dimension tolerances can also be more easily held and fewer forging and welding operations are required, thereby materially reducing the cost of the journal box.

What I claim is:

1. A journal box for railway vehicles comprising: a body shaped by forging from a single block of metal to have the metal fibres directed circumferentially of the finished box, said body having a fiat-topped, relatively thick section upper load carrying portion, opposite side walls having relatively thin irregular sections and surface contours, and inwardly curving lower wall portions located in edgewise adjacence; and weld metal joining said adjacent edges of the lower wall portions of said body.

2. A one-piece journal box for railway vehicles comprising: a journal box body open axially therethrough and having the fibres directed circumferentially of the axial opening by hot forging a single block of metal, said hot forged body having a relatively thick section load bearing upper portion, opposite relatively thin section and irregularly contoured side walls, and curved lower wall portions in edgewise juxtaposition; and weld metal uniting said juxtaposed lower wall portions.

GLADFORD A. REIFSNYDER.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 351,987 Lewis Nov. 2, 1886 1,413,549 Williams Apr. 18, 1922 1,791,187 Brauchler Feb. 3, 1931 1,964,770 Runge July 3, 1934 1,994,863 Nierhaus Mar. 19, 1935 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 561,007 Great Britain May 1, 1944 

